CLEP Social Sciences

Answer - A - True. Antarctica is a desert.

Key Takeaway: Although most people think of deserts being hot, dry, and sandy, polar deserts on Earth cover almost 5 million kilometers and are made mostly of bedrock and/or gravel. Antarctica is the world’s largest cold desert. Some of the barren rock that exists in Antarctica almost never gets snowfall. These areas have gigantic ice-encrusted saline (salty) lakes that rapidly evaporate due to the fierce Antarctic wind.